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From the women's wing of the prison, Green wrote: “I am having the op, and pretty soon. The letter has went out [sic] to the surgeon asking him to take on my case.”

Mr Shankland’s sister, Pauline Bell, 46, slammed the move.

She said: “She should not be getting the operation on the NHS. It’s not lifesaving treatment. She took ­somebody’s life away and destroyed a family.”

Green is serving her sentence in the women's wing of HMP Edinburgh (Image: PA)

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “We cannot discuss ­individual cases but if a request is made by the NHS for surgery for one of the prisoners they are treating, we would not and could not stand in the way.”

Mr Shankland was murdered in March 2013 when Green and pals Kevin McDonagh and Dean Smith invited him to a party in Green’s flat in Glenrothes, Fife.

The trio then tied him up and tortured him for hours, beating him so badly they left a footprint on his neck. They also sexually assaulted him with a rolling pin.

He died as a result of either suffocation or blunt force injuries.

The attack was described by a judge as “utterly depraved”.

The trio were found guilty of murdering Mr Shankland and sentenced to life with a minimum of 18 years.